Law Commons^™

The Use And Misuse Of High-Tech Evidence By Prosecutors: Ethical And Evidentiary Issues, Robert Aronson, Jacqueline Mcmurtrie

Articles

This essay first addresses the ethical and evidentiary standards for the emerging use of high-tech computer-generated animations and computer-assisted closing arguments. Next, this essay considers the same questions within the context of forensic DNA evidence. Third, this essay considers the ethics of prosecutors' use of such evidence and the consequences for the misuse of this evidence. Finally, this essay suggests remedies to ethical problems facing prosecutors in their use of this kind of evidence.

Recordings, Transcripts, And Translations As Evidence, Clifford S. Fishman

Washington Law Review

Secretly recorded conversations often play a vital role in criminal trials. However, circumstances such as background noise, accidents, regional or national idioms, jargon, or code may make it difficult for a jury to hear or understand what was said—even if all participants were speaking English. Thus, a recording's value as evidence will often depend on whether an accurate transcript may be distributed to the jury. This Article discusses several legal issues, including: Who should prepare a transcript? What should it contain? How should its accuracy be determined, and by whom? Should the transcript be considered evidence, or only an "aid …

Repercussions Of Crawford V. Washington: A Child's Statement To A Washington State Child Protective Services Worker May Be Inadmissible, Heather L. Mckimmie

Washington Law Review

Before the landmark United States Supreme Court case of Crawford v. Washington, Washington State courts often admitted statements of unavailable alleged child abuse victims through the hearsay testimony of Washington State Child Protective Services (CPS) workers. In Crawford, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a new "testimonial" standard for the admissibility of out-of-court statements. The Court held that the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment bars testimonial out-of-court statements unless the declarant is unavailable and the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross-examine the declarant. The Court did not clearly define the term testimonial, which left the matter open …

The Priest-Penitent Privilege – An Hibernocentric Exercise In Postcolonial Jurisprudence, Walter J. Walsh

Articles

Although much has been written on the history of the priest-penitent privilege, this Article will show that such writing tends toward an unconscious, but strong, anglocentric tilt. It seems that no scholar has tried to locate and interpret all the Irish and American sources that inspired this initially hibernocentric, later more generally American, postcolonial deviation from the English common law. Since the Second World War, the significance of Philips and its 1828 New York codification have gained widespread recognition, but the scholarly inquiry has never advanced in any truly historical fashion. This article is thus the first history of the …

The Character Of Discrimination Law: The Incompatibility Of Rule 404 And Employment Discrimination Suits, Lisa Marshall Manheim

Articles

This Note illustrates how violations of Rule 404 of the Federal Rules of Evidence (which prohibits litigants from relying on certain propensity proofs) occur routinely. It demonstrates that the ineffectiveness of the ban in the context of discrimination suits cannot be blamed on clever lawyers or negligent judges, but rather is a predictable consequence of the dearth of evidence available to discrimination plaintiffs. This Note concludes by arguing that this subtle but problematic incongruity justifies a reform of the Rule.

De Novo Review In Deferential Robes?: A Deconstruction Of The Standard Of Review Of Evidentiary Errors In The Federal System, Peter Nicolas

Articles

Although the labels have changed, the name of the appellate game is still the same. For any given type of error in admitting or excluding evidence, one needs to determine whether review is discretionary or deferential. The purpose of this Article is to parse each of the rules of evidence to determine which types of claimed errors are entitled to de novo review, which are entitled to clear error review, and which are entitled to traditional abuse of discretion review. By "type" of error, this Article does not mean to refer to such large categories as "hearsay," "best evidence," "relevance," …

A Review Of China's New Civil Evidence Law, Paul J. Schmidt

Washington International Law Journal

On December 21, 2001, China's Supreme People's Court promulgated landmark rules concerning the production and use of evidence in civil cases. These rules became effective on April 1, 2002 and apply to legal actions initiated after that date. The rules apply in all Chinese courts, from the high and intermediate level courts found at the provincial and prefecture level, down to the basic level courts found in rural counties and in urban districts. Of the eighty-three newly promulgated rules, more than half concern procedures for exchanging, confronting, investigating, or discovering evidence. Eleven are strict rules of evidence. The remainder is …

A Review Of China's New Civil Evidence Law, Paul J. Schmidt

Washington International Law Journal

On December 21, 2001, China's Supreme People's Court promulgated landmark rules concerning the production and use of evidence in civil cases. These rules became effective on April 1, 2002 and apply to legal actions initiated after that date. The rules apply in all Chinese courts, from the high and intermediate level courts found at the provincial and prefecture level, down to the basic level courts found in rural counties and in urban districts. Of the eighty-three newly promulgated rules, more than half concern procedures for exchanging, confronting, investigating, or discovering evidence. Eleven are strict rules of evidence. The remainder is …

Can Fingerprints Lie?: Re-Weighing Fingerprint Evidence In Criminal Jury Trials, Tamara F. Lawson

Articles

This article discusses fingerprint evidence and its use in criminal jury trials. It is commonly thought that fingerprints "never lie"; however, this article reveals the little known fact that the "science" of fingerprint identification has never been empirically tested or proven to be reliable. It further exposes the seldom-discussed issue of fingerprint misidentification and latent print examiner error. The article explains the importance of fingerprint evidence and its extensive use in all phases of the criminal justice system. Specifically, the article plays out the dramatic courtroom scenario of incriminating fingerprints being found at a crime scene and matching the accused …

"They Say He's Gay": The Admissibility Of Evidence Of Sexual Orientation, Peter Nicolas

Articles

This Article seeks to fill an existing gap. Part II of this Article discusses the ways in which the sexual orientation of a victim, party, or witness is relevant within the meaning of Federal Rule of Evidence 401 and its state-law analogues, as well as when such evidence, although relevant, is nonetheless excluded due to its potential prejudicial impact.

Part III of this Article examines the hearsay rule and its exceptions to determine when, if ever, a person's assertion that he is gay can be admitted into evidence. Part IV of this Article discusses the applicability of the spousal privileges …

Reverse Presumptions: Guillen V. Pierce County Disregards Reasonable Constitutional Interpretations Of 23 U.S.C. § 409, Megan Walseth

Washington Law Review

To prove that dangerous roadways caused their traffic accidents, plaintiffs often seek discovery of highway information from state and local governments. Title 23 U.S.C. § 409 bars discovery of some of that information; it creates an evidentiary privilege for materials and data collected for certain federal highway safety funding programs. For example, state and local governments receiving funds through the federal hazard elimination program codified at 23 U.S.C. § 152 must maintain an engineering survey of all state public roads. Section 409, in turn, makes certain data and materials compiled or collected for § 152 exempt from discovery and inadmissible …

Fire Sale? The Admissibility Of Evidence Of Environmental Contamination To Determine Just Compensation In Washington Eminent Domain Proceedings, Paul W. Moomaw

Washington Law Review

Jurisdictions across the United States are split on the issue of whether evidence of environmental contamination should be admissible to determine just compensation in an eminent domain proceeding. Jurisdictions that admit this evidence reason that environmental contamination is a property characteristic that necessarily affects the value of the property. Those that exclude the evidence cite procedural due process concerns and the risk of extra liability for the landowner. Washington's Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) establishes a system of assigning liability and recovering cleanup costs for environmental contamination. No Washington court has addressed whether evidence of environmental contamination should be admissible …

Dna Typing: Emerging Or Neglected Issues, Edward J. Imwinkelried, D.H. Kaye

Washington Law Review

DNA typing has had a major impact on the criminal justice system. There are hundreds of opinions and thousands of cases dealing with DNA evidence. Yet, at virtually every stage of the process, there are important issues that are just emerging or that have been neglected. At the investigative stage, courts have barely begun to focus on the legal limitations on the power of the police to obtain samples directly from suspects and to use the data from DNA samples in various ways. Issues such as the propriety of "DNA dragnets" (in which large numbers of individuals in a geographic …

Attorney-Client Confidentiality And The Assessment Of Claimants Who Allege Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Robert H. Aronson, Lonnie Rosenwald, Gerald M. Rosen

Articles

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was first recognized by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980. A PTSD diagnosis requires an individual or individual's loved ones to have experienced a traumatic event that was a threat to life or physical integrity and caused the individual to react to the incident with a specific number of avoidance, reexperiencing, and hyper-arousal symptoms. Obtaining a PTSD diagnosis can be of great value to a personal-injury plaintiff who claims damages due to a traumatic event. Further, if the traumatic event is unquestioned and the individual reports the classic symptoms, a PTSD diagnosis is relatively easy to …

The Mental Health Provider Privilege In The Wake Of Jaffe V. Redmond, Robert H. Aronson

Articles

Many of the revisions to article V of the Uniform Rules of Evidence involved stylistic, nonsubstantive changes. In particular, all language was made gender neutral. The most substantial revision was to Rule 503, formerly titled "Physician and Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege." This revision broadened the scope of the privilege to include a general "mental health provider" privilege, in accord with the trend in the states and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Jaffee v. Redmond. In Jaffee, the Court recognized for the first time a federal psychotherapist-patient privilege and extended the privilege to confidential communications with a licensed social worker in …

Impeaching Lying Parties With Their Statements During Negotiation: Demysticizing The Public Policy Rationale Behind Evidence Rule 408 And The Mediation-Privilege Statutes, Lynne H. Rambo

Washington Law Review

Virtually all American jurisdictions have laws—either rules of evidence or mediation-privilege statutes or both—that exclude from evidence statements that parties make during negotiations and mediations. The legislatures (and sometimes courts) that have adopted these exclusionary rules have invoked a public policy rationale: that parties must be able to speak freely to settle disputes, and they will not speak freely if their statements during negotiation can later be admitted against them. This rationale is so widely revered that many courts have relied on it to prohibit the use of negotiation statements to impeach, even when the inconsistency of the negotiation statement …

Beating Again And Again And Again: Why Washington Needs A New Rule Of Evidence Admitting Prior Acts Of Domestic Violence, Linell A. Letendre

Washington Law Review

Batterers in Washington who use violence to control their intimate partners routinely avoid conviction and punishment due to the difficulties of prosecuting domestic violence cases. Prosecutors often face complex problems, such as recanting victims, lack of other witnesses, and juries inherently biased against battered women. Although some Washington prosecutors have found ways to introduce evidence of prior domestic violence in certain limited circumstances, Washington Rule of Evidence 404(b) generally precludes the use of evidence showing prior domestic violence. This Comment argues that this evidence rule prevents the admission of highly probative evidence of prior abuse against current or past victims …

One Crime, Many Convicted: Dissociative Identity Disorder And The Exclusion Of Expert Testimony In State V. Greene, Mary Eileen Crego

Washington Law Review

In State v. Greene, the Supreme Court of Washington held that expert testimony about Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) was not admissible to support an insanity or diminished-capacity defense. Even though the court acknowledged DID as a generally accepted medical disorder, the court reasoned that such testimony would not be helpful to the trier of fact, as required by Washington Evidence Rule (ER) 702, because the court has not established a specific standard for determining the legal responsibility of a defendant with multiple personalities. This Note argues that the Greene court had sufficient scientific evidence to establish a legal standard …

Unconscious Bias And Self-Critical Analysis: The Case For A Qualified Evidentiary Equal Employment Opportunity Privilege, Deana A. Pollard

Washington Law Review

Recent breakthroughs in social psychology have resulted in the ability to measure unconscious bias scientifically. Studies indicate that prejudiced responses are largely unconscious, the result of normal cognitive processing and stereotypical associations of which the prejudiced subject may be completely unaware. The studies also indicate that a subject's awareness of the discrepancy between her conscious, egalitarian value system and her unconscious prejudice is a critical step towards the convergence of her cognitive functioning and her egalitarian viewpoints. Antidiscrimination legislation requires a showing of intent to discriminate to obtain relief in all but a small percent of circumstances. The result is …

Novel Scientific Evidence After Reese V. Stroh: The Washington Supreme Court's Love Affair With Frye, Robert D. Leinbach

Washington Law Review

In Reese v. Stroh, the Washington Supreme Court upheld the use of the Frye test as a threshold inquiry in civil cases involving novel scientific evidence. By affirming the decision of the court of appeals, but not its reasoning, the Washington Supreme Court side-stepped the court of appeals's argument for adoption of the Daubert standard in civil cases analyzing ER 702. This Note examines the decision in Reese v. Stroh and concludes that the Washington Supreme Court failed to determine clearly the proper analysis of ER 702 in cases involving novel scientific evidence. It further agrees with Justice Johnson's …

Washington's Expansion Of The "Plan" Exception After State V. Lough, Jeannie Mayre Mar

Washington Law Review

In State v. Lough, the Washington Supreme Court ignored strong case law limiting the admission of an accused's prior misconduct under the plan exception to evidence rule 404(b) and upheld the admission of unproved wrongs against the accused. The plan exception to Washington Rule of Evidence 404(b) prohibits using misconduct evidence to show propensity, but admits such evidence if used to establish a defendant's overall design or plan to commit the charged offense. This Note analyzes the Washington Supreme Court decision to uphold admission of a defendant's uncharged misconduct under the plan exception. Moreover, this Note argues that the …

What About The Children? Are Family Lawyers The Same (Ethically) As Criminal Lawyers? A Morality Play, Robert H. Aronson

Articles

A fictional account of a lawyer, representing a woman in a divorce case, who learns from her client that her live-in boyfriend has hit her and her five-year-old daughter. Is her ethical duty to protect the child greater than her responsibility to maintain the attorney-client privilege. She discusses the matter with two evidence professors in search of a solution.

The Presumption Of Innocence Imperiled: The New Federal Rules Of Evidence 413-415 And The Use Of Other Sexual-Offense Evidence In Washington, Jeffrey G. Pickett

Washington Law Review

The U.S. Congress has provisionally enacted three new federal rules of evidence (FRE). In cases of sexual assault or child molestation, FRE 413-415 allow the use, for any relevant purpose, of sexual assault or child molestation evidence not charged in the indictment or information. The new rules would operate in contravention of the traditional prohibition against using evidence of other misconduct for the purpose of proving that the defendant acted in conformity with a particular character trait on the occasion in question. This Comment surveys the arguments for and against the proposed changes. It concludes that Washington should not elect …

The Admissibiity Of Inculpatory Statements In Washington Under The Rule For Declarations Against Interest After Williamson V. United States, Julianna Gortner

Washington Law Review

Washington courts hold that where a statement by an unavailable declarant, offered in the trial of a third party inculpated by the statement, is predominantly disserving to the declarant's penal interest, the statement is admissible under the hearsay exception for declarations against interest. Federal courts have split on the admissibility of such declarations, with some courts holding that any non-disserving portions must be severed and excluded. In Williamson v. United States, the United States Supreme Court narrowed the scope of Federal Rule of Evidence 804(b)(3) on declarations against interest and held that only the individual portions of such statements that …

Toward Uniform Application Of A Federal Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege, Catherine M. Baytion

Washington Law Review

In federal courts, Federal Rule of Evidence 501 governs all privileges, including the psychotherapist-patient privilege. Unlike many state statutes that explicitly recognize the psychotherapist-patient privilege and define its scope through exceptions, Rule 501 merely directs courts to use their reason and experience to interpret common law principles. Under this vague standard, the federal circuits lack uniformity in their treatment of the psychotherapist-patient privilege. This Comment suggests that Congress should explicitly recognize the privilege and define its scope through exceptions. To support this conclusion, this Comment discusses the justifications for recognizing a psychotherapist-patient privilege, uses the paradigm of formal versus nonformal …

The Admissibility Of Dna Evidence In Washington After State V. Cauthron, Elizabeth A. Allen

Washington Law Review

In State v. Cauthron, the Washington Supreme Court issued its first opinion concerning forensic DNA evidence. The court clearly held that the principles underlying DNA evidence and the restricted fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method of DNA typing are generally accepted in the scientific community and are therefore admissible under the Frye test. The court refused to find that the trial court had properly admitted DNA evidence, however, because testimony that the suspect's DNA "matched" the perpetrator's was not supported by probability statistics. This Note demonstrates that the court was unclear in its discussion of when probability statistics meet the Frye …

Out Of The Twilight Zone: The Implications Of Daubert V. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Diana K. Sheiness

Washington Law Review

In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the United States Supreme Court held that the Federal Rules of Evidence had not implicitly incorporated the general acceptance, or Frye, test for scientific evidence. Instead, the Court interpreted Rule 702 to mean that judges should admit challenged scientific testimony only after determining that its underlying method or theory is scientifically valid. This Note argues that the essence of the Daubert decision is that judges must ascertain whether or not the studies underlying proffered testimony have been performed in accordance with sound scientific principles. The Note analyzes several cases to illustrate appropriate and …

Admissibility Of Prior Theft Convictions To Impeach Criminal Defendants In Washington State, Hossein Nowbar

Washington Law Review

The majority of the federal circuit courts hold that prior theft convictions are not automatically admissible under Evidence Rule 609(a)(2) as crimes of dishonesty or false statement. The Washington Supreme Court departs from this conclusion and holds all theft crimes automatically admissible under ER 609(a)(2) as crimes of dishonesty or false statement. This Comment discusses the inherent problems in Washington's interpretation of the terms "dishonesty or false statement" in ER 609(a)(2) and suggests three possible solutions that may alleviate those problems.

Proof And Prejudice: A Constitutional Challenge To The Treatment Of Prejudicial Evidence In Federal Criminal Cases, D. Craig Lewis

Washington Law Review

The United States Supreme Court held its 1970 decision In re Winship that in criminal prosecutions the Constitution requires proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Professor Lewis argues that Winship governs the validity of evidence rules in criminal cases and requires that rules of evidence do not impair the reliability of criminal convictions. The author concludes that Federal Rule of Evidence 403, which permits the admission of prejudicial evidence unless the danger of unfair prejudice substantially outweighs probative value, violates this requirement. Rule 403 substantially increases the risk of erroneous decisionmaking and prescribes a balancing test that unconstitutionally places …

Expert Testimony On Rape Trauma Syndrome: An Argument For Limited Admissibility—State V. Black, 109 Wash. 2d 336, 745 P.2d 12 (1987), Deborah A. Dwyer

Washington Law Review

In State v. Black, the Washington Supreme Court faced the question of whether the State, in a rape case, should be allowed to offer expert testimony on rape trauma syndrome ("RTS"). After examining some of the relevant scientific literature, case law, and the standards governing the admissibility of expert testimony, the court held that expert testimony on RTS was inadmissible. The court based its decision on findings that RTS testimony lacks scientific reliability, and that it unfairly prejudices a defendant accused of rape. The court's holding in Black was based on a misinterpretation of the available scientific literature, and on …